Family Talk: Fostering Imaginations

I would probably say that one of the best things about kids, and being a kid is the ability to imagine. Kids can dream up all that which most of us adults would have to think long and hard to come up with.

One way that my kids' imaginations run free is through movies. 

Movie night is a regular occurrence in my house. We make popcorn and settle in late on a Friday or Saturday night to watch one of our old favorites, a new release we didn't catch in the theaters or any one of the kid classics I coaxed my kids into watching that night.

A Night at the Museum, with Ben Stiller, is one of the kids' top picks. They've seen the movie numerous times, and don't seem to get bored with it. If you haven't seen the film, all of the exhibits in the Museum of Natural History come to life at night.

Over breakfast one day, my son said, "I wonder how all those things come to life at night." Now, I am big on having talks with my kids about films and television, and explaining that what they are seeing is fictitious, so it surprised me when my son made the comment.

I was about to reiterate that it is just a movie and that the exhibits don't come to life at night, that actors are pretending to be the historical characters and figures that he is watching in the movie—but then I stopped myself.

My son is intelligent and understands that movies are created by people and actors, props and cameras. My son was lucky enough to attend my studio production course when I was still in school, where my professor actually put him in front of a green screen with backdrops of a forest, a city street and a waterfall.

So I thought to myself, 'why should I help in extinguishing his imagination with my constant discussions of reality and the truth all of the time? Is it so bad that he can imagine that what he is seeing in the film could possibly be?'

Now, I could have said, "Don't be silly; you've seen the film. They come to life because of the magic from the tablet owned by the ancient pharoe that's being kept locked away by the original night guards, because it makes them feel young!"

While I didn't bring him back to reality with a talk of how films are made and a reminder of his visit to my school, I also didn't go as far as talking about the film as it was real. I let the question float away as a rhetorical one, merely posed in his expression of a thought he had over breakfast.

And that's how I foster my kids' imagination. I think it's important for children to understand the difference between fantasy and reality. I have had specific talks on the subject with my kids. I do, however, think it's okay to let them imagine that something as wild as what occurs in one of their favorite movies could actually be, on a magical plane or just on screen. Afterall, who knows what they'll be able to come up with when they're older?